Recommended Preview Settings?

[Alan]

In another thread, someone mentioned that the Standard Preview Size should be set to something larger than the one's screen width. I took a look at my catalog settings, and I see that I have the preview size set to the default 144' pixels, but my display is 168' pixels wide.

Should I change my preview size to 168', or should I go all the way up to 2'48? And what about the Preview Quality setting? (It's currently set at Medium.)

One more question: After I change my preview settings, can I update my previews by selecting all my photos and choosing Library>Previews>Render Standard-Size Previews? Or do I need to somehow delete the old previews first?

By the way, I just discovered this forum yesterday, and I'm finding a lot of information and a lot of helpful folks here. :lol:

Thanks!

 

[Mark Sirota]

You should set your preview size to at least 168'. If you frequently use the "fill" view in Loupe, you might want to go bigger. If not, then you can probably safely stick with 168'.

You can always change it later. If you don't use "fill" view a lot, then I would suggest going with 168', and pay attention to how often LR needs to render something bigger for you.

Yes, you can re-render at any time. If you want to be sure, then just delete the preview cache from disk (outside of Lightroom), then fire up Lightroom and re-generate (this might take a while).

 

[Alan]

Thanks for the info, Mark. It hadn't occurred to me that I might actually need the preview to be larger than my display width.

 

[Katherine Mann]

Well, isn't that remarkable? I didn't know about this. Very nice. Thanks.

 

[Packhorse-4]

Sorry to bring back an old thread, but this was exactly the topic I had a question on, so when it popped up in the search, I thought I would just continue the conversation...

I'm looking to find a balance between quality previews and speed. I'm using a 24inch iMac and the screen resolution reads 192'x12''. Should I max out the preview size to 2'48 and set the quality to high? This seems to slow down the import quite a bit, but I rarely need to wait for LR to render a larger preview unless I'm viewing at 1:1.

My other question is related, but has to do with importing - Do you render standard previews on import, or wait until you have reviewed your pictures and started to work on your selects for the shoot?

 

[Kiwigeoff]

Sorry to bring back an old thread, but this was exactly the topic I had a question on, so when it popped up in the search, I thought I would just continue the conversation...

I'm looking to find a balance between quality previews and speed. I'm using a 24inch iMac and the screen resolution reads 192'x12''. Should I max out the preview size to 2'48 and set the quality to high? This seems to slow down the import quite a bit, but I rarely need to wait for LR to render a larger preview unless I'm viewing at 1:1.

My other question is related, but has to do with importing - Do you render standard previews on import, or wait until you have reviewed your pictures and started to work on your selects for the shoot?

Welcome aboard Packhorse !!

1. I would go for the max size of 2'48. Quality will depend on your system and personal preference/needs. Medium would work ok for most whereas high may slow down things too much for your use, have a play. Be aware of the space required for large/high quality previews !!
2. I render on import, again this is a personal preference depending on workflow/needs, hence the options.

 

[Mark Sirota]

I'm betting you'll end up at 2'48, but you could start at 168' and see how often you find yourself waiting for Lightroom to render a larger preview. If you frequently work in Grid, or in Loupe at Fit with both side panels visible, 168' may work for you. If you zoom in more than that or work with both side panels hidden, it's unlikely that 168' will be preferable for you.

As for quality, set it as low as you can stand, if space is a concern for you. Lower quality may be slightly faster too, as there's less data to move to and from disk.

I render standard previews at import, but I like to be able to work when I'm away from my original files, which live on external disks. If you're always connected, and you find that you can choose your selects in Grid without going to Loupe, then you can probably delay building your previews.

 

[Packhorse-4]

Thanks for the help Geoff and Mark, I think I'll bump the preview size up to 2'48 and leave the quality at medium for now.

As far as the import settings... well I may need to try a few different approaches to see what works best. My first thought was to let LR do as much as possible during the import process (convert to DNG, apply a develop preset and render standard previews). This will take a long time when importing a few hundred pictures.

I think I may try importing the pictures as quickly as possible from the card reader, and once I have cut through the images once, I can select only the images I want to move forward with in the processing and have LR render the standard previews on a smaller number of pictures.

 

[Victoria Bampton]

Hi packhorse, welcome to the forum!

I always did the same as you - imported with standard previews - but I've recently gone back to importing with minimal previews. Doing it that way I can import from all cards fairly quickly, and then set it rendering previews while I go off and make a drink. It's working nicely for me.